Fergus Finlay: You'll be fine, Ivana. However, here's a few tips for the future

People who know Ivana Bacik well all say the same thing — she is really about other people and fundamentally empathetic

Labour TD Ivana Bacik speaking at a National Women's Council of Ireland (NWC) rally outside Leinster House in Dublin. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

Ivana, 

I’m an old-timer and I shouldn’t be interfering. I said here last week that’s not my style, and generally speaking it isn’t. When I move on I move on, hopefully with my friendships intact, and I try not to get in the way.

But you’re taking on the leadership of the Labour Party at an existential moment, not just for Labour, but for the world. To coin a phrase, it might well be the case that the problems of one little party don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. So you kind of need to hit the ground running as hard as you can.

Forgive me then if I offer a few words of advice. You need to think about the state of the party you’re inheriting, but then relax about us and get on with shaping the world. Easy really.

Let’s talk about us first. Broadly speaking, we’re the grumpiest members of any political party. An old colleague of mine (back in the day when FF, FG, and Labour were the three parties that mattered) used to tell a story about the difference between the three organisations.

When the newspapers had harsh things to say about FF, he’d say, FF members would burn the newspaper at their meeting and woe betide the writer if he ever turned up in their town.

When they were cruel to FG, on the other hand, FG members would write long patronising letters to the editor, explaining how if only the media could understand how good for you FG really is.

And if the newspapers offered even a hint of criticism of the Labour Party, party members would immediately gather together to pass a vote of no confidence in the leader.

We’re like that, you know. Well, some of us, anyway. You could, if you wished, divide us into three groups.

One group of us goes around constantly talking about poor old Jem Connolly, asking questions like “but is she a socialist in the truest sense of the term?” and forever worrying about the need to “resonate” with the working man (never mind the working woman).

There’s another group of us that only ever wants to get involved in one thing, and that’s electing a councillor or a TD. You’ll find more of them outside Dublin than in Dublin – and you’ll hardly ever find any of them on Facebook or Twitter.

The third group is the rest of us, and we’re a bit of both. When we’re at leisure, we worry about dry old stuff like values and history. When we’re galvanised, we work like divils to get people elected. Once we have them elected, we can get back to giving out about them again.

There’s a serious point here, and it’s one of our strengths, believe it or not. When people obsess about values and processes and always being on the right side of the moral argument, that’s a recipe for political sterility. When they obsess about winning at all costs, that’s a recipe for corruption. The balance is crucial – we have to learn to start winning again, but we also have to constantly refresh and reassert our values.

That’s where you come in. You’re the only winner we’ve had in 10 years, and everyone knows you’re a values-driven person. So you’ve a massive head start.

Ivana Bacik (left) listens to former Irish Labour Party leader Alan Kelly's (centre) resignation speech outside Leinster House, Dublin, on Wednesday evening. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

You could, though, drive yourself completely nuts worrying about the whingers and the moaners. Smile at them instead. Feel their pain and move on. Most of us know that winning means one parish at a time, one councillor at a time, one constituency at a time. We need to be galvanised to make that difference.

There was a time in my life when I desperately needed an injection of funds into a little organisation I was working with, to keep it going through a crisis. I devised an appeal essentially based on describing the plight we were in and how badly we needed the money. The first person I showed it to told me that no-one wants to invest in an imminent failure. Come back, he said, with a plan for success.

Take your time to develop that plan. Talk to people, inside and outside the party. Use the parliamentary party – there is no better strategist in Leinster House than Brendan Howlin; Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and Ged Nash have huge experience, ability and connections; Duncan Smith, Marie Sherlock, and Rebecca Moynihan are committed and determined. It’s a tiny band, for sure, but desperately wants to be part of a growing team (emphasis on team!).

I’ve talked to people who know you well. They all say the same thing about you – that you are really about other people. If you ask someone how they’re doing, it’s because you really want to know. People who know you describe you as fundamentally empathetic.

That’s a hugely valuable characteristic – although it’s a much easier thing to communicate on a one-to-one basis. But it could also be the underpinning of a much bigger idea.

If you were to lock up your entire history of campaigning for ideas of social equality and put that history in a drawer, you’d still forever be known as a campaigner for social equality. And I’m not suggesting that you should abandon your lifetime commitment to greater equality. Far from it.

But equality means different things to different people. You can’t have equality if thousands of young families can’t afford a home of their own. You can’t have equality if childcare is a commodity sold for profit and delivered by people who are working for a minimum wage.

You can’t have equality of older people are unable to live independently and in dignity because of the lack of support. You can’t have equality if a child with scoliosis, or anxiety, or a disability can’t get access to the support they need to change the trajectory of their lives.

Despite everything, we are a rich country. And believe it or not there are huge untapped resources that politics has largely ignored. For example, tens of thousands of highly skilled people work in the community and voluntary sector in Ireland. Thousands more work in social enterprises across the country, many of them involved in lasting and strongly rooted change in their communities. There is no government strategy in place at all in relation to either of those sectors – and they’re a huge untapped market for ideas.

Look Ivana, you come to this job at a time when there are quite a few willing to write the Labour Party off altogether. So at least that means you can set your own expectations. Don’t be looking for an “Ivana increment” – whatever happens happens, and sure if you get one smile and move on again.

Concentrate on rebuilding the sense of team. Get people working on ideas. Galvanise us into going after the little wins. Talk to the world about stuff that matters. Travel as much as you can around Ireland to let people get to know you (and to get you out of your comfort zone). Set out to enjoy it and make the differences only you can make. And you’ll be fine.